


It Begins With Two

by Morgyn Leri (morgynleri)



Series: Night Mirror: The Triad and Baal [1]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, GFY, Mirror Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-05
Updated: 2012-02-05
Packaged: 2017-10-30 15:37:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/333304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgynleri/pseuds/Morgyn%20Leri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They've been together for barely a year when everything changes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It Begins With Two

The first time Paul met her, she was a Captain working on a top-secret project, and he was a newly-promoted Major who'd just been read into the project because the Pentagon needed a new liaison with said project. It hadn't been love at first sight, no matter what anyone might say later, but there certainly had been a spark of attraction.

He'd asked Sam on a date for the first time a month later, taking her out to dinner and a movie that was interrupted by a call from the SGC ordering her back to the base. An emergency that had him coming with her, since the Pentagon would no doubt want to know what was going on, at least afterward. She saved the world, and he kept her in coffee and redirected distractions while she figured out what she needed in order to do so.

Their respective jobs weren't exactly the sort to make it easy to start or maintain a relationship, but he wasn't going to give up without trying - and she put in as much effort as he did. Meals eaten out whenever he was in Colorado, or the rare times she was in Washington, sometimes a movie or a DVD at her apartment or his.

They've been together for barely a year when everything changes. A mission, as usual, goes wrong, and SG1 returns with injuries and no idea why the planet they were on was attacked. She doesn't act quite right, but he doesn't comment on it until they're safely back at the small house she's renting.

"What's going on, Sam?" They're sitting on the couch, the remains of carry-out on the coffee table in front of them, his arm wrapped around her shoulders while she leans her head against his shoulder. "What happened on Nassya?"

She turns her head, a small frown on her face that almost rings true - would ring true if he were sure something weren't off. "You were at the debriefing." As if she'd told them everything in that conference room.

"And I won't tell them what you didn't," he says quietly, though he knows that he shouldn't make that promise. If she's been compromised, it's treason, after all, but even though it's only been a year since he first asked her out, he can't imagine not supporting her over his government. Not something that his superiors would be glad to know, and not something he's entirely sure he should be comfortable with.

"But you think I'm keeping something back." She sighs, looking away from him again, though she doesn't try to sit up. Doesn't put that distance between them, for which he's glad when he hears the difference in her voice with her next words. "I am sorry for the necessity of my actions, but my host was dying, and I thought the actions of your Captain Carter an offer."

He nearly startles, and tightens his grip on her shoulder for a moment. Influence from something alien, he'd expected. A goa'uld, he hadn't. "An offer?"

"Of refuge." The metallic burr of the symbiote grates on his nerves, almost more because he's afraid of what it means for Sam than anything else. How she can be the same woman he'd fallen in love with over the last year, and how she feels about this whole mess. If she's still in there, even. "She has... corrected this error in perception."

There's humor in the symbiote's voice, and he can easily imagine just how Sam might have done so. And if Sam **is** still in there - the briefing, actually, for all the discrepancies, suggests she is - she's one of the strongest women he's ever met. Perhaps the only one he immediately thinks might have a chance to keep a goa'uld from overwhelming her.

"And Sam's still in there?" He shifts, tilting her head up with his free hand, studying her expression as something in it changes - the symbiote giving up control? There's certainly a fond irritation in the expression he's seeing now that speaks a lot of the Sam he knows.

"Where would I go, Paul?" She reaches up, curling her fingers around his hand, turning it after a brief hesitation, and tilting her head to press a kiss to the palm. "It's not... entirely what it looks like, though I'm not sure what it is. Or what it will become."

"It looks like you had a goa'uld get into your head, Sam. And either impersonates you very well, or convinced you to hide it." He tightens his arm around her shoulders, leaning in to press a kiss to her temple, worry making his thoughts run in circles. "And how long will you manage that? Eventually, something will give you away."

She shrugs, leaning her head against his shoulder once more. "If I can hide Jolinar long enough, it won't matter."

"Long enough for what?"

There's a moment's silence, and then the goa'uld - Jolinar - answers, "To make contact with the tok'ra, and establish some sort of alliance." There's more than Jolinar's saying, and he waits patiently - either she will tell him, or Sam will - and after several long, quiet moments, Jolinar sighs, and mutters something he can't understand under her breath. Rude, likely, and exasperated, from the tone of it.

"If your government will not accept what Samantha and I are working on - will not accept her agreement to be my host - then we will find another method of establishing her safety here."

He's not sure what to say for a moment, before he sighs, and holds her a fraction tighter. "You know your team will support you, and so will I. Anyone at the SGC will." So long as they can trust that Sam's doing this of her own free will, not because she was forced into it. And perhaps, after finding these tok'ra Jolinar mentioned, it will be easier to convince them of that.

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Cherish (#142/1000)


End file.
